They don't want to stick too close to the origins, because we know three things.

First, cosmic rays in orbit don't give people superpowers, or there would be small towns of superpeople in the US and Russia.

Second, Ben Grimm has to be a little different. The Dead End Kids are a cryptic reference now, not a living image to invoke as Ben's childhood.

Third, Victor von Doom as a gypsy and king; magician and scientists; homicidal maniac fixated exclusively on Reed and Sue and rational genius aiming at world conquest, only works in the comics. You can put one Doom in a panel, then put another in the next panel. In the comics, the reader then imagines the smooth transition from one panel to the next, clearly or fuzzily as he or she wishes. But in a movie the character has to morph convincingly from one persona to the other. Not so easy then. (That's the fundamental difference in "graphic novel" and film that comic book purists like to highlight when they're bitching about adaptations.)

The film adaptations got the personal dynamics right and addressed these other structural problems. We hope the new people do as well.

They don't want to stick too close to the origins, because we know three things.

First, cosmic rays in orbit don't give people superpowers, or there would be small towns of superpeople in the US and Russia. ....

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Exposure to different kinds of sunlight has no bearing on a person's physical ability planet-side.

Exposure to Gamma-rays quickly causes death.

It's very, very, hard to get away with roguish behavior especially when to "keep it secret" you buy unusual gadgetry in bulk while also owning a company with a branch specializing in obscure gadgetry.

Open-chest surgery in an Afghani cave is not conducive to a long life.

Shrapnel in the heart is not conducive to a long life.

Long-distance, super-sonic, powered flight and military-grade weaponry takes up a lot more space than a man-sized suit.

Power sources are limited by the First Law of Thermodynamics.

Norse Gods do not exist.

Amazonian Goddesses do not exist.

Performance enhancing drugs rarely have positive effects and even more rarely have long-lasting positive effects after one dose.

It is impossible for a body to freeze to cryogenic state in the North Pole. Even more impossible for such a body to be recovered 70 years later perfectly intact and viable for life.

Macroevolution and biology doesn't happen in a way to give people incredible powers inside of a few generations. Even if it did these powers would not give one the ability to control the weather, project "mountain destroying" beams from their eyes, create magnetism, healing abilities that can correct any injury effectively making one immortal.

Covering one's skeleton in a metal is not possible for incredible reasons not limited to the muscles having nothing to adhere too and bone marrow not having a way to get to the blood stream.

Being bitten by a spider is likely to cause in the best circumstances an annoying rash or sore, in the worst death. Nowhere will it cause the spider's abilities to manifest in you.

Spider webbing comes out of their butts, not their wrists.

No matter what no set of circumstances is going to:

1. Effectively turn your body into rubber giving you the ability to stretch and contort your body into any form.

2. Give you the ability to spontaneously combust into a being of fire capable of extreme temperature levels.

3. Give you the ability to render themselves invisible.

4. Give you the ability to create/project forcefields.

5. Give you the ability to alter mass and biology and become a walking creature of rock.

reboots are getting faster and faster. Can't we wait a decent amount of time to let the last one cool off at least?

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Not in Hollywood these days. I think the way some deals are brokered now is that a studio can only have so many years of inactivity between movies of licensed properties before the rights revert back to the owner, who could then sell the rights to another studio.

1. Effectively turn your body into rubber giving you the ability to stretch and contort your body into any form.

2. Give you the ability to spontaneously combust into a being of fire capable of extreme temperature levels.

3. Give you the ability to render themselves invisible.

4. Give you the ability to create/project forcefields.

5. Give you the ability to alter mass and biology and become a walking creature of rock.

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Yes, it takes a effort to suspend disbelief. But suppose you are a viewer game to make the effort. Then, you accept that cosmic rays in low Earth orbit did do these incredible things. After all you saw them on screen. Easier to suspend with good FX, but a willing imagination can help the shoddiest CGI, no? But at the same moment you are to also to remember and accept that cosmic rays did not do any thing like this to any of the other many people who've gone into orbit! You are asked to believe cosmic rays did and did not do such things.

Asking willing suspension of disbelief is one thing. Demanding willing suspension of critical faculties when faced with a self-contradiction is quite another. I think the latter is bad writing.

reboots are getting faster and faster. Can't we wait a decent amount of time to let the last one cool off at least?

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Yes, you can - via the revolutionary technological technique of not seeing reboots you're not interested in. But it's a patented technique, so, if you don't go see this, you owe me ten bucks. PM me for PayPal details. (And it's fifteen if you don't see it in 3D, either.)

1. Effectively turn your body into rubber giving you the ability to stretch and contort your body into any form.

2. Give you the ability to spontaneously combust into a being of fire capable of extreme temperature levels.

3. Give you the ability to render themselves invisible.

4. Give you the ability to create/project forcefields.

5. Give you the ability to alter mass and biology and become a walking creature of rock.

Click to expand...

Yes, it takes a effort to suspend disbelief. But suppose you are a viewer game to make the effort. Then, you accept that cosmic rays in low Earth orbit did do these incredible things. After all you saw them on screen. Easier to suspend with good FX, but a willing imagination can help the shoddiest CGI, no? But at the same moment you are to also to remember and accept that cosmic rays did not do any thing like this to any of the other many people who've gone into orbit! You are asked to believe cosmic rays did and did not do such things.

Asking willing suspension of disbelief is one thing. Demanding willing suspension of critical faculties when faced with a self-contradiction is quite another. I think the latter is bad writing.

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IIRC it was a special condition of cosmic rays, higher than normal or combined with the equipment or something like that. Needless to say, I don't think it needs to be "explained" much more than a handwaving. It's rather small and insignificant part of the story, overall.

In Nolan's more "realistic" Batman movies we've got microwaves that causes water to instantly turn to steam (yet not harming the people around who are also made up of mostly water) and a man with severe burns able to pretty much walk around for the better part of a day without being in agonizing pain or dying from severe infections. (Not to mention having a useful eye.) Shit, when foregoed medical attention he wasn't even in an isolation ward!

I think we cannot examine these things too closely. How did the Fantastic Four's exposure to cosmic radiation impact them and not others who went into orbit before them? It was simply the fall of the cards and the roll of the dice. They went at precisely the wrong time. Like all of the Apollo astronauts who managed to survive exposure to radiation outside of the Van-Allen Belt, it just happened to be at the right time with low solar activity. If that calculation would've been wrong they would have been irradiated to death.